The grim official silence over the situation with respect to the recently removed Sarawak Governor, Abdul Taib Mahmud, has not been able to cover up increasingly frantic and now shocking developments behind the scenes.

Yesterday, just before midnight, according to a police report sighted by Sarawak Report, Taib’s younger second wife, Raghad, who is now estranged from all his immediate family, turned up at the private Normah Hospital in Kuching, where her spouse had been returned owing to his deteriorating condition.

There, in the hours of darkness and with the help of a butler and a team of body guards, she set about removing her husband from the Intensive Care Unit where he was connected to life supporting medications, and had him placed in a wheelchair to be whisked out of the hospital and returned to Demak Jaya in a black Toyota Alphard.

This was despite a confrontation in the hospital lobby with doctors, who explained to Ragad that her actions were putting her frail husband in the way of harm!

The medical staff were also forced to advise Raghad that the centre had been passed a copy of a legal notice she had received that very day from the lawyers representing Taib’s sons to demand they be notified of any such attempts to remove their father from clinical care.

In the face of her forceful removal the clinic was obliged to formally record that Taib had been removed against medical advice. The clinic was then obliged to file a police report to notify of the incident in which the wording used left no doubt as to the seriousness of their concern:

“At around 2356 hours at Normah Medical Specialist Centre, the patient named Abdul Taib Mahmud [was] absconded by his wife Raghad, despite being advised to have the patient stay in the hospital for proper and adequate treatment.
It was also informed by the staff nurse from the ICU that Raghad has voluntarily removed all medications attached to Tun without alerting the ICU staff on duty. The patient was brought together by Toh Puan’s butler and body guards and was put on a wheelchair and was carried aboard a black Alphard at the main hospital lobby entrance….[where the doctors] tried to explain again to Toh Puan that her action of taking Tun Taib from our care may cause harm to the patient”

Kept Away From Medical Care And From His Own Family

This move in the middle of the night in the middle of the weekend, one suspects, was in direct response to that legal demand by Taib’s sons that their father must be kept under medical supervision in a place where they can visit.

Taib, who has experienced deteriorating health over the past several months, is believed to be now suffering from a life-threatening brain infection.

Visitors, including his own children, are now reportedly being banned by Raghad from his bedside and it is understood that she has been taking long-distance advice on his care from Turkish medical doctors over the phone.

On Sunday afternoon a 4.30pm visit by the new Governor to see his ailing predecessor was also cancelled.

There can be very little doubt that the Governor is now within an inch of his life and yet removed from proper care and even from the comfort and support of those dearest to him, his own children and siblings with whom Raghad is now in open warfare over their disputed inheritance.

Given the power and influence of the Taib family in Sarawak there can be little doubt that with such a state of affairs law enforcers and the courts will be kept busy over the next hours and days.

Raghad may have taken control of the situation for now. How long this lone woman, surrounded by packing cases and apparently ready to make her move the moment her husband dies, can be expected to hold off Taib’s angry relatives and the forces of law and order is a different matter.

Who would have imagined such a dramatic final act in the life of Taib Mahmud or thought to wish it on anyone?